The present invention generally relates to noise making devices, and more specifically relates to noise making devices formed to replicate sporting equipment, for use by fans at sporting events.
Organized team sports, including football, basketball, baseball, and soccer, have a significant role in modern culture, and sporting events are attended by millions of people each year. Fans who attend sporting events typically do so not just as passive observers, but as participants in the sense of cheering for and encouraging their chosen teams. In addition to verbal cheers and applause, many fans use noise making devices to express their excitement and encouragement. Many fans also choose to express themselves visually, with signs, banners, and other visual symbols which may or may not display their chosen team""s logo or colors. It is generally considered that coordinated cheers and visual displays are particularly effective for encouraging the players and encouraging other fans.
Many fans wish to express their support and encourage their chosen teams with noisemakers of one form or another, and rattling noisemakers have become very popular for that purpose. The noisemakers in common use include simple hollow objects such as metal cans or plastic bottles or jugs with a few beads or beans placed in the interior. Although such devices do produce noises, the sounds are poorly projected toward the field, and the home made devices in common use typically lack aesthetic qualities. Further, they fail to provide any coordinated visual encouragement to the team.
Rattling noisemakers for other purposes, such as baby rattles, are well known and have been used for many years, and are often decorated with images of various kinds. However, for various reasons, such devices are not well suited for use at sporting events. Further, the emission of sound from the body of those rattles is omni-directional, and it is more desirable for the sound produced by noisemakers at sporting events to be generally directed toward the field rather than in all directions.
The present invention provides a combined noise maker and visual display device that can be produced efficiently and made readily available to sports fans very economically. The device of the invention may be produced and provided in a variety of configurations, selected to replicate equipment used in a selected sport, such as a football helmet, a baseball batting helmet or bat or ball, a basketball, or a soccer ball, as non-limiting examples. The device may be produced in different colors to match selected team colors, and will readily receive decals or other application of team logos, slogans, etc. as desired. The various configurations of the device of the invention provide a surface of relatively large area to which colors, decals or other displays may be applied, so the display will be highly visible and readily identifiable from a distance.
The physical structure of the device of the invention generally comprises a hollow body formed of a substantially rigid material, a plurality of small beads or pellets loosely disposed in the interior of the hollow body, and a handle means connected to or integral with the body, configured and dimensioned to facilitate holding and the manipulating the device by a user. The body of the device and the handle means are formed in a configuration to closely replicated the outside visual appearance of a selected item of sporting equipment, with the handle being either a replication of a part of the actual item of equipment or being disposed so as to minimize any alteration the configuration of the actual item of equipment needed to provide a handle means.
The body of the device, being typically formed in the shape of a helmet or a ball, has a rounded or curved wall surrounding the hollow interior. A partition of generally planar configuration is disposed within the interior of the body, closing the interior in the case of a helmet configuration, and dividing the interior in the case of a ball configuration. The beads or pellets are confined in the chamber formed between the partition and the wall of the body. The partition is disposed in the body relative to the position of the handle means to form a funnel-like, or megaphone-like chamber expanding in volume from the intersection of partition and wall nearest the handle means outwardly from the user and toward the field of play. Because of that configuration, when the device is shaken back and forth more sound is produced in the portion of the chamber nearest the field of play, and the sound produced within the chamber is at least partially reflected and channeled toward the field of play. As a result, the sound volume projected toward the field of play is higher than the volume of sound projected in the opposite direction.